Thanks for the great recounting of one of the greatest plays in Michigan football history. I read a few articles this past week regarding that great play, but a very important piece of history has been left out of all of these stories.

The play just before the Wrangler-to-Carter pass was what made the last play of the game possible. If you recall, with about 20 seconds left in the game, Wrangler threw a short pass to the fullback (#23 Lawrence P. Reid) who was running to the sideline to stop the clock. As defenders closed in on him, he realized he could not get to the sideline, so he “accidently” fumbled the ball out of bounds to stop the clock.

This play enraged Lee Corso who was then Head Coach of Inidana. At the time, there was no rule against this, and when Michigan won on the next play, Corso became livid. I swear he still hates Michigan for losing that game on such a wierd play. You can still see it in his pregame analyses of Michigan games.

I met Lawrence P. Reid working in an emergency room. I am a physician and he was working as a nurse in a hospital in Los Angeles. When he told me he played for Michigan and Bo we started swapping stories.

He asked what was the greatest play I had ever seen at Michigan Stadium. After I told him it was the Wrangler-to-Carter pass against Indiana in 1979, he asked if I recalled the play just before that pass. I told him that I remembered a running back tossed the ball out of bounds to stop the clock, but I could not remember who the back was.

He just smiled and said, “That was me.”

The fumbling rule has been changed so that you cannot fumble out of bounds to stop the clock. It was changed because of Lawrence’s “fumble” 30 years ago.

Interestingly, Golden Tate’s fumble two weeks ago at the end of the Notre Dame game did not stop the clock as many Irish fans thought it should have for one last play. Thirty years later, Lawrence’s play helped the Wolverines defeat the Irish. Only fitting.